Turn Clinical Distress into
Well-Being-Retention

READ TIME 4 MINUTES

The fastest, most effective way to turn distress into well-being and retention is to create safe space relationships.

Safe space relationships, or 'Relational Equity,' is the most important leadership skill and priority in today's disrupted healthcare system. Why? Because when we don't have it, people don't want to be on the team, there is no way to restore and revive energy, and the 6 distress signals cause havoc with individual and team systems. 

I'm not going into detail on the 6 distress signals today because I will be writing about them in future issues of this newsletter, but they are, in a nutshell, Disconnection, Dysfunction, Disengagement, Disrespect, Dysregulation and Draining Distrust. These signals are scalable systemic symptoms that individuals, teams and organizations in healthcare are experiencing today, and the bottom line is they drain leaders, teams and talent from healthcare. But, before we get into large scale work, we have to learn how to create a shift with this in one relationship or conversation, and that's what I will talk to you today about.

Have you ever had one person on your team that was difficult? Is there someone that you work with that you would like to be able to have a candid conversation with, but you don't because you:

A: Don't have the energy for the drama

B: Don't want to be gaslit

C: Feel too dysregulated to communicate

D: All of the above

This is a common occurrence in high-pressure, high-stress healthcare environments, but what isn't as standard is the skill of creating safe space relationships that shift these kinds of relationships and give people the skill of relationship regulation.

So, what are safe space relationships? Safe Space Relationships carry clinical teams through complexity to relief, resilience, well-being and increases in recruitment and retention.

Unfortunately, most clinical leaders try to engage, inspire and lead without creating safe space relationships where everyone (including them) can be real.

This approach leads to doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results, while recruitment and retention suffer in direct correlation with a lack of relational equity or safe space relationships.

So, how do you create safe space relationships?

You Regulate Relationships with 7 Steps to Be PRESENT

I'm creating a free resource I call 'The Relationships Regulator' that will help clinical leaders create a safe space conversation with anyone on their team, including their boss or their bosses boss.

It consists of 7 steps:

1. Prepare Your Being: To have a powerful conversation that is self-differentiated and congruent with what you want to communicate, you must prepare yourself and what you will say.
2. Request Their Presence: Once you have prepared yourself, you need to request their participation.  
3. Engage the Conversation: You must facilitate the process when you get to the conversation.
4. Surrender the Floor: Let them talk through the process guided by your curiosity. 
5. Enroll Agreement: Compare your notes and perspectives and create a working agreement.
6. Next Steps: Decide what you will do when it all goes wrong because it will.
7. Thankfulness: Enjoy the shift and thank yourself and them for their help.

What we get wrong about "Toxic People"

I was hired to work with a "problem team" with "toxic people" who were, by all accounts, the "root of the problem." This was reported to me by all levels of leadership who had been experiencing the problem for more than a decade! 

When the team arrived to work with me, I experienced them as honest, open and willing to learn. Were they tough? Yes, they were. Did they have difficult questions and comments? Yes, they did. They also had an incredible commitment to their work, the people they served and each other.

So, how come all the leaders missed the raw talent? Because their biases prevented them from creating safe space relationships where people felt safe to answer the fundamental questions of any safe space relationship: What do I need to feel safe? What do I need to be open and learn? And, what do I need to feel respected?

With this kind of foundation, the team could walk up to difficult behaviours in a fundamentally different way, and the "toxic people" became humanized, listened to, heard and transformed into respectful people because of it.

Conclusion and Action Steps

When I am done creating the Relationship Regulator, I will ship it to all my newsletter subscribers first, so sign up if you would like the free video mini-course I am creating.

Podcast Highlight: Listen to this newsletter theme on our podcast episode that comes out on Tuesday morning at 5:00 AM PST

How to Navigate Toxic Team Members

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Safe Space Team Building Workshops:   Are you an executive leader dealing with burnout and low retention? A healthcare manager with disengaged teams? Or a clinical leader facing staff resistance? Our 4-hour Safe Space Team Building Workshops can help. Join over 1,500 healthcare professionals who've experienced the transformation of team cohesion by fostering workshops that foster respect, trust, and support that make your job easier. Reach out today to book a workshop and improve your team's culture.

2. Safe Space Group & Team Coaching: Are you struggling with burnout, retention, or morale? Safe Space Systemic Group and Team Coaching can help. Join over 1,000 healthcare leaders who've transformed their practices with psychological and neurobiological safety. Through group and team coaching, you'll learn to create a workplace where everyone feels safe, connected, and energized. Unlock 25 years of expertise with proven methods and actionable strategies. Transform your leadership and your team's well-being today.

3. Safe Space Training & Mentorship:  Are you struggling with burnout, retention, or morale? Safe Space Training and Mentorship can help. Join over 500 healthcare leaders who've transformed their practices by integrating safe space-informed coaching. Learn to emotionally regulate, co-regulate, and lead with psychological and neurobiological safety as your foundation. Transform your healthcare system by first transforming the one system you fully control—yourself. Direct message me to arrange a consultation and start your journey today.